If you read this, you’re aware of a lot of my favorite recordings. But how about yours? I’d be interested in hearing from people about a few of their favorite recordings or record labels…and why? Musical performance? Songs? Sonics? All of the above? Something I’m not thinking of? Let’s hear about it!
Oh, and since this is such a short post, I thought I’d share with you me as a Simpsons character…somewhere between Bart and Milhouse. 
I like the idea of blogs. I have to admit I find most of them deadly boring and self-serving (i.e. to sell ad space or rant on about how difficult the author’s life is), but the overall concept is appealing to me. I guess I see it as the jazz of the online world.
I’ve written and published a lot of articles for fairly well-know print publications: EQ, Tape Op, Sound on Sound…and some smaller one’s you’ve probably never heard of. (OK, that’s the self-serving aspect of today’s post.) Though I enjoy writing in the “article” format, I think it’s a lot more fun to just blurt out an idea and see where it goes. Sort of the theme (or “head”) of a jazz piece. If readers find it interesting, they can add to it (with complimentary or contrary momentum).
So, I certainly see myself committing to more structured writing (i.e. for “traditional publication”) down the road, for now I’m enjoying probably the closest thing I’ll ever get to being a jazz musician. Now where’d I put my needle…
A few days back I mentioned how the home theatre system is really driving the hi-fi market, as the music industry isn’t so focused on quality as it is convenience (.mp3s and iPods). There are, however, a handful of music labels that are still dedicated to top-quality music recording and production.
Chesky Records, Waterlily Acoustics and Blue Note come to mind.
Chesky and Waterlily are “audiophile” labels. But don’t let that scare you off. Chesky’s stuff is really accessible to “average” listeners as well as very satisfying to discerning audiophiles, with a lot of their catalog based on jazz and folk-influnced artists.
Waterlily is more “world” and classical, with their classical being based around some of the best orchestras of the modern era and their “world” consisting of interesting pairings of small ensembles. It’s not the Peter Gabriel or Putumayo “world”, but more organic and complexly structured improvisations based on sort of a jazz sensibility of theme/development-improvization/theme.
Blue Note is the label probably everyone here is aware of. They’ve got an amazing catalog of old jazz and blues classics, as well as modern jems like Norah Jones. They’re one of the best examples of a label that is focused on the music and the artist, yet still makes a good profit.
If you haven’t already, check something out from each of these labels. Whether it’s CD, DVD-A or SACD. You’ll be glad you did.
There’s a phrase from the Tao Te Ching: “Do your work, then step back.” This is my philosphy of mastering. I guess it’s sort of the Buddhist equivalent to “let the music do the talkin’.” Because for all the esoteric and technical knowledge one can accrue on a given subject, it’s the final product that reflects whether or not an artisan or technican has “the goods.”
I was reminded of this while plunking around on my guitar today. I recently bought a Larrivée parlor guitar. I’ve played guitar for 32 years (give or take) and have owned acoustic guitars by Martin, Taylor, and Guild. But the Larrivée I purchased about six months ago is hands-down the best guitar I’ve ever owned. And I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise. Jean Larrivée has been making guitars for more than forty years. Quietly plying his trade…doing his work, then stepping back.
If you’re at all involved in music, you must know how many acoustic guitar makers have appeared on the scene since Larrivée opened up. And few have done as good of a job of marrying quality with affordability and mass production as they have. They’ve stood the test of time.
It’s always good to have role models. A business model doesn’t hurt, either.
I sat down for coffee with an aspiring engineer the other week. He was interested in getting some advice on how to break into the local music scene as an engineer. While I’m not sure I was able to give him any relevant advice — “networking is the key” was the best I could do — we got talking on an interesting side topic: what direction is audio going in?
This is sort of a Pandora’s box and, really, impossible to predict. But one thing I see (that I don’t see as a revelation) is that audio is being pulled in two separate directions: How low can it go before it falls apart, and what is the upper limit?
The low-end is being driven, ironically, by the music industry. MP3s and other compressed formats are based on convenience, not sound quality. And as most people listen to music in loud and noisy environments, the quality really doesn’t matter that much. It is, in essence, the audio cassette of the day. The lowest common denominator.
The high-end is being driven by the home theatre market: something people are becoming more and more interested in as the price of movie tickets goes up. SACD, DVD-A and Blu-Ray all offer exceptional HD quality, and a home theatre system (something pro-sumer yet affordable like a Bose system) offers the benefit of a nice surround-sound home theatre setup that doubles as a nice multi-channel or stereo listening system (or, vice-versa).
After being in the music business for 20 years, and being a professional mastering engineer for the past eight, I’ve realized that creating solid relationships with clients as well as positive relationships with other industry professionals (read “the competition”) is as important as anything you know. Recently I got some positive feedback on both fronts that I thought I’d share as an example of how these principles really work in your favor.
From a past client
“I did a CD several years ago and you mastered it for me. I wanted to say thanks again for your help. I have since finished a second album and have been sitting on it for a while because I wanted it to be better than the first and have been taking my sweet time on it. When I’m ready, I’d like to have you master the second CD. I just wanted to let you know I liked your work and want to work with you again.”
From a fellow mastering engineer
“I have been meaning to say thank you for your e-mail. Things have been a little hectic lately. I really appreciate your cooperative attitude toward new engineers. I would love to take you out to lunch sometime and pick your brain.”
So, the point isn’t so much to toot my own horn (though, this is my blog so…come on) but to give two real examples of how treating clients and industry colleagues with the respect they deserve is a good practice that reaps its own rewards.
As a follow-up to yesterday’s client question, it makes me remember that everyone gets obsessed about what’s on their radar. Ever realize that you never notice something until someone mentions it?
A few years back my wife was considering getting a Honda CR-V. She wasn’t familiar with the model (it was for sale on her employer’s BBS…a few years old with low miles so it caught her eye) and asked me if anyone drove them. I told her, “they’re all over the place.” After that, it seemed everywhere she drove she saw a CR-V.
Same thing with audio gear. People tend to get obsessed with what processors a mastering engineer uses. Is it analog? Is it tube? Is it hardware digital or plug-in digital?
However, I don’t get a lot of people asking about what converters I use, power amps, speaker cable, interconnects or speakers. All of these things are infinitely more important than what equalizer I use. I mean, I may not even use an equalizer on your project. But I can’t determine that without a pristine signal chain letting me know what your music really sounds like.
This is the way of the world, though. People start hearing about or seeing something and they fixate on it.
I received an e-mail the other day from a potential client. He had a valid question that I thought beared blogging about…
I noticed on your site that most of gear you have are plug-ins. I was under the impression that there is a lot of hardware used when mastering.
My answer…
Most professional mastering engineers today use a combination of analog and digital (either hardware digital or plug-ins) for their work. Some just use analog and some just use digital.
I use digital for three main reasons. First, I work closely with a software company to help develop their mastering plug-ins. A lot of what they build is to my suggestion and/or spec. So, I wouldn’t be using it if I didn’t sound great and met my exact needs.
Second, a lot of my clients are up-and-coming musicians, some of whom are relatively inexperienced with recording, and they may change their mind about how they mixes after they hear the mastered version. To keep costs down for them, automation is very important so I can make changes quickly and effeciently. Having a digital signal chain enables this.
Finally, if you’ve recorded and mixed down in analog it makes a lot of sense to master in analog (on load-in), but if your recording is digital then the signal needs to be converted to analog, processed, re-converted to digital and then cut to disc. Even in the best converters there’s a loss of data integrity in that D/A/D process.
Processing is one (very important) part of mastering. But, as I always say, processors are tools the mastering engineer uses to achieve a goal. Like a carpenter uses a hammer or screwdriver. It’s how you use it that really matters.
I would recommend you read an article I wrote a few years back about my take on the difference between analog and digital.
If I stripped away everything from my persona, I’d say I’m a composer at the core; a sensibility that’s served me well as a mastering engineer, as I’m trying to make recordings “more musical” and hear inside them to know what to bring out.
In 20th Century composition, there’s a compositional technique known as “stochastic.” Something Iannis Xenakis sort of pioneered.
sto·chas·tic adj
1. involving or showing random behavior
2. involving or subject to probabilistic behavior
3. involving guesswork or conjecture (formal)
I was typing out some parameters for a guitar I’d like to have a luthier build for me. One of the sentences read, “No inlay on the fretboard. Not even dots. I’d like it completely black/ebony.” I realized I wanted to put it higher in the listing order, so I cut-and-pasted it.
I got sidetracked and had to actually do some work. Then, when I came back to the computer I wanted to paste in a URL I’d sent someone as an e-mail. I pasted in what I thought was the URL into the address bar, but instead it pasted in “No inlay on the fretboard. Not even dots. I’d like it completely black/ebony.” Without looking, I hit “enter”.
It turned into a Google search…and the results were fascinating, rendering things I probably could have never found (or thought to search for) on my own.
It’s a good composition tool, and it’s kind of fun for search engines, too.
About a year ago I became aware of The Tape Project. The short story, for those who don’t click on the link: it’s a collaboration between a few mastering studios, a hi-fi manufacturer and a tape machine refurbisher to re-master recordings for 1/4″ two-track open reel format and supply the necessary mod to existing “consumer-grade” machines for excellent sonic results.
This is a boutique collaboration, to be sure, but the parties involved seem very dedicated, capable and right-headed.
Interested in great sounded analog at affordable prices, but don’t have an open reel two-track? No worries, they’ve made a recommendation for the Technics RS1500, and offer several upgrade paths for the electronics, depending on your budget. Want to go whole hog and get a completely refurbed machine? That can be arranged as well.
Anyway, if sound quality matters to you and you’ve got a few “k” to part with, check it out!
